BEST PICTURE: Shame~This is a film so focused on creating a human being so repulsed by himself many forget about the environment that Steve McQueen creates. He turns New York from something to love into somewhere you cum, a rotten hole filled with scumbags, struggles, and lots of porn. Also, Michael Fassbender's huge lady-plower.

BEST DIRECTOR: Steven Soderbergh for Contagion~Contagion made me want to vomit and it's Steven's fault.

BEST ACTOR: George Clooney for The Descendants~I think a lot of people are going to take a poop on this film because it's not worth all of the praise it's received, but his performance is great stuff. The writers put his character through hell and he manages to act his way out of a paper bag.

BEST ACTRESS: Keira Knightly for A Dangerous Method~More specifically, Keira Knightly's chin. That thing is frightening. In all seriousness, despite my lukewarm reception to the film, I really loved what she did here. She's fiercely sexual and holds her own in a male-dominated world.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Hunter McCracken for The Tree of Life~It's so rare in cinema that kids get to act like kids. They're usually a writer's construct or only there to beat sympathy out of the viewer. Not here.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Svetlana Khodchenkova for Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy~She's in the film for only a few scenes, but she accomplishes the following in a mere minutes: acts as a foil to Tom Hardy's character, is believable enough to deliver key information, and affects the audience enough to care when shit hits the wall.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: Certified Copy~This might not be my pick for the foreign language category, in part because I don't think it really needs any help there. Certified Copy deserves recognition outside of that category and its screenplay is a good place to start. Not only does the dialogue flow in appropriate ways depending on the context of the story, but the structure of the acts makes it a difficult film to read. Certified Copy is full of surprises, never full of bullshit.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: Drive~Guys, this is based on a book!!! Seriously, check out the screenplay for this film. Its level of detail is ridiculous.

BEST ANIMATED FILM: Rango~Because it's good.

BEST DOCUMENTARY: Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey~If you like seeing a good man making other people happy, this is the film for you.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives~Although Certified Copy might be better, Uncle Boonmee offers a perplexing look at death, the afterlife, and fish sex. Nothing is what it seems in this film and you won't forget what you watched. The pacing is slow, but the atmosphere is rich with ideas.

BEST ENSEMBLE: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy~This might be a no-brainer, but man, there's not a weak link in that cast. Everyone is at least good.

BEST ART DIRECTION: Tucker and Dale vs. Evil~This might be pushing it, but I thought its locations and set designs were phenomenal.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Bellflower~I haven't seen it, but I think this one film the forum should scramble to watch with me. I mean, they developed a special camera just for the film for fuck's sake! That's dedication.

BEST EDITING: Drive~This is a film that lives or dies by its ability to keep the viewer in touch with the environment that's on display. Editing helps achieve this goal, especially in the few action scenes.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Skin I Live In~This is a slightly liberal interpretation of the word costume, but between the "skin" that Elena Anaya wears and the shop where her character once worked, I'm okay with liberal interpretations.

BEST MAKE-UP: Super 8~Although forum opinion may have dwindled, the make-up category is one where it should shine. It operates on a pragmatic level, allowing the in-film to be something worth producing. It also operates on an artistic level, allowing the characters to see each other as more than just cogs in the director's gears. In applying the mask of make-up, they see the face behind the artifice.

BEST USE OF MUSIC: Attack the Block~I imagine Hanna's going to get a lot of attention in this category, but Attack the Block's electronic score compliments its film just as well.

BEST SOUND MIXING: The Tree of Life~Here's a film that ops for some sounds sometimes and other sounds at other times. The soundscape that Malick uses is always complex and worth a second look.

BEST SOUND EDITING: Rise of the Planet of the Apes~This is one action film that earns its cred, especially in this category. There are lots of ape sounds plus that bridge scene. The sound effects team probably had a field day with this movie.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: MelancholiaI would argue that any time visual effects are used in Melancholia is when both the sadness and spectacle of the situation need to be pronounced. Although the film isn't what you would call subtle, it's not quite over-the-top, either. There's something beautiful in the breakdown of humanity when confined to such a small locale, which ends up being pronounced by any shot of Melancholia itself.

Fri Jan 20, 2012 3:59 am

Shade

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Love this! Good thoughts all around, Pedrovsky. My own thoughts:

BEST PICTURE: Win Win. I know, I know. Most of you think it's good-not-great at best. Many think it's not even McCarthy's best work. But in a weak year, I think it deserves some love. It's perfectly written, cast, and acted. It's sensitive and realistic. Giamatti and Ryan absolutely kill it. It's very easy to say that McCarthy's work is trite, but I ask, is anyone making legitimately humanistic films in America that are this good? If it was easy, we'd see it all the time. And we don't.

BEST DIRECTOR: J.C. Chandor, Margin Call. Perhaps another good-not-great film to many of you. That's okay. I think he handled this material very well, kept up the right pace and made things the perfect level of understandable without going beyond what we need to understand. Obviously he's working with a pretty solid cast, but he gets great work out of all of them. A tricky story with the almost "real time" gimmick that works on every level.

BEST ACTOR: I agree with Pedro that Clooney deserves love. For similar reasons, I vote Ryan Gosling in Ides of March. Probably a better performance than film, although I liked the film more than most. A nuanced, layered performance from an actor we're blessed to be experiencing on his way up.

BEST ACTRESS: I have to toss out two: First, Robin Wright in The Conspirator. A very very good film that has been sadly forgotten. She absolutely kills the role. It's an incredibly restrained performance that comes from a place of real confidence, and the final moments of the film are emotionally overwhelming in all they imply. In my perfect world she wins the Oscar this year. Also, Michelle Williams, Meek's Cutoff. Yes, she's getting the "real" Oscar nod for the Monroe film. But this is better work, in my mind, from an outstanding actress.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Jeremy Irons, Margin Call. Yes, it has the feel of a great actor dropping by the set for a couple days to shoot some scenes. That takes away none of the power or panache of his work here. He's a villain of sorts, but never a caricature.

BEST ENSEMBLE: We Need to Talk About Kevin. Who says it has to be a large ensemble? The work turned in by Swinton, Reilly and Ezra Miller (not to mention the boys who play Kevin at younger ages) is heart-wrenching. Maybe the movie doesn't reach the same heights, but their work here deserves recognition.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. To me, the best looking film of the past few years. The near-constant movement that never feels forced or stylish for it's own sake adds exactly the right level of tension to every scene.

I'll come back with more thoughts later...those are the ones I felt most strongly about.

Fri Jan 20, 2012 5:52 pm

Blonde Almond

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Here are a few shout-outs off the top of my head:

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR(s):

Corey Stoll, perfectly channeling Ernest Hemingway in Midnight In Paris.John Hawkes, quietly chilling as the cult leader in Martha Marcy May Marlene.Mark Strong, stepping away from his traditional villain roles to provide the heart in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.Tom Hollander, darkly comic as the sexually ambiguous assassin in Hanna.Patton Oswalt, still bitter for being known as the "hate-crime kid" in Young Adult.Michael Parks, terrifying as the mad preacher in Red State.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS(es):

Marion Cotillard, as the stunningly beatiful nostalgia-fueled "art groupie" in Midnight In Paris.Ellen Page, gleefully demented as Boltie in Super.Elle Fanning, at the center of all the best moments in Super 8.Svetlana Khodchenkova, because Pedro and Shade are absolutely right in singling out her performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Attack The Block, specifically the creature design. Where the aliens in Super 8 and Cowboys & Aliens were disappointingly generic with their bug-like features, the blue-fanged black masses in Joe Cornish's debut feature were amazingly simple and instantly memorable.

BEST USE OF MUSIC: A slightly biased pick here, but Arizona band Calexico's soundtrack for The Guard was perhaps the film's main highlight, apart from Brandon Gleeson. Their southwestern style worked perfectly with the film's "Western in Ireland" aspirations. Sadly, I don't think I've read even one mention of this when talking about the year's best scores.

That's it for now. I'll come back and fill in the other categories eventually.

Corey Stoll, perfectly channeling Ernest Hemingway in Midnight In Paris.John Hawkes, quietly chilling as the cult leader in Martha Marcy May Marlene.Mark Strong, stepping away from his traditional villain roles to provide the heart in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.Tom Hollander, darkly comic as the sexually ambiguous assassin in Hanna.Patton Oswalt, still bitter for being known as the "hate-crime kid" in Young Adult.Michael Parks, terrifying as the mad preacher in Red State.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS(es):

Marion Cotillard, as the stunningly beatiful nostalgia-fueled "art groupie" in Midnight In Paris.Ellen Page, gleefully demented as Boltie in Super.Elle Fanning, at the center of all the best moments in Super 8.Svetlana Khodchenkova, because Pedro and Shade are absolutely right in singling out her performance in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Attack The Block, specifically the creature design. Where the aliens in Super 8 and Cowboys & Aliens were disappointingly generic with their bug-like features, the blue-fanged black masses in Joe Cornish's debut feature were amazingly simple and instantly memorable.

BEST USE OF MUSIC: A slightly biased pick here, but Arizona band Calexico's soundtrack for The Guard was perhaps the film's main highlight, apart from Brandon Gleeson. Their southwestern style worked perfectly with the film's "Western in Ireland" aspirations. Sadly, I don't think I've read even one mention of this when talking about the year's best scores.

That's it for now. I'll come back and fill in the other categories eventually.

Yes, her scenes with Joel Courtney were easily the most affecting scenes in the movie particularly the one where she sneaks into his room.

Sun Jan 22, 2012 2:36 pm

ed_metal_head

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

I'll start with an odd category:

Costume

So far, I'm going with Meek's Cutoff. Those bonnets, man, they look authentic. And the colours of the clothes! Good stuff. I like Pedro's pick of The Skin I Live In, but I'd sooner nominate that for its Art Direction. Think about it for a second. You with me on that one?

Mon Jan 23, 2012 9:07 pm

Pedro

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

ed_metal_head wrote:

I'll start with an odd category:

Costume

So far, I'm going with Meek's Cutoff. Those bonnets, man, they look authentic. And the colours of the clothes! Good stuff. I like Pedro's pick of The Skin I Live In, but I'd sooner nominate that for its Art Direction. Think about it for a second. You with me on that one?

I'm with you. The Skin I Live In could probably vie for a lot of technical categories. Art direction, costume design, editing, cinematography, use of music, they're all good choices. I don't know if I'll end up putting any of them in my ballot, but they're all good choices.

Mon Jan 23, 2012 10:05 pm

Syd Henderson

Director

Joined: Tue Jun 30, 2009 1:35 amPosts: 1727

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Shade wrote:

Love this! Good thoughts all around, Pedrovsky. My own thoughts:

BEST PICTURE: Win Win. I know, I know. Most of you think it's good-not-great at best. Many think it's not even McCarthy's best work. But in a weak year, I think it deserves some love. It's perfectly written, cast, and acted. It's sensitive and realistic. Giamatti and Ryan absolutely kill it. It's very easy to say that McCarthy's work is trite, but I ask, is anyone making legitimately humanistic films in America that are this good? If it was easy, we'd see it all the time. And we don't.

I thought Alex Shaffer most memorable as the wrestling prodigy. It was his first role but he's lined up for another film, "Land of Tomorrow.

_________________Evil does not wear a bonnet!--Mr. Tinkles

Thu Feb 16, 2012 1:15 am

Pedro

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Some additional ones to consider perhaps, in light of some of my recent viewings.

BEST DIRECTOR AND, WELL, PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING ELSE: Kelly Reichardt for Meek's Cutoff~Meek's Cutoff is one of the best films of the year for a number of reasons but the directing is pretty much where it starts. Shot in 1.33:1 to give a detached perspective, Reichardt controls the narrative in such a way to simulate the 1800s female experience without being too obtuse. The film's crazy and almost nothing happens.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: Pina~Also a slightly liberal interpretation of what constitutes costume design, all of the pieces in Pina use their costumes to highlight various aspects of the human body as it dances. This isn't clothing you just wear to perform; it amplifies the theme of, "Dance, dance, otherwise we are lost."

Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:33 am

ed_metal_head

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

I want to give a quick shout out to some movies that IMDB lists as 2010 but that were released commercially in 2011 (I'm sure Pedro will let us know if any of these are actually ineligible). This list doesn't include foreign flicks since Pedro already made a shortlist of those:

SUPERHesherBeginnersTucker and Dale vs Evil

And that's all I can think of! Vote for some of those! Or, just vote for Certified Copy!

Tue Feb 21, 2012 10:57 pm

Bones

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Shade wrote:

BEST PICTURE: Win Win. I know, I know. Most of you think it's good-not-great at best. Many think it's not even McCarthy's best work. But in a weak year, I think it deserves some love. It's perfectly written, cast, and acted. It's sensitive and realistic. Giamatti and Ryan absolutely kill it. It's very easy to say that McCarthy's work is trite, but I ask, is anyone making legitimately humanistic films in America that are this good? If it was easy, we'd see it all the time. And we don't.

I had it more like very-good-not-quite-great. But a really good movie, like you say. I don't think it's trite at all, and the acting is all very good, but I do think it's far from his best: The Visitor is just so great.

ed_metal_head wrote:

Vote for some of those! Or, just vote for Certified Copy!

Or Warrior! Seriously, vote Warrior!

Wed Feb 22, 2012 8:51 am

ed_metal_head

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Bones wrote:

ed_metal_head wrote:

Vote for some of those! Or, just vote for Certified Copy!

Or Warrior! Seriously, vote Warrior!

I did! It might not be my favourite, but I have it ridiculously high up there. Ahead of Hugo and Drive in some categories.

Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:44 pm

JamesKunz

Critic

Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 9:35 amPosts: 6252Location: Easton, MD

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

VOTE A SEPARATION FOR EVERYTHING

_________________I'm lithe and fierce as a tiger

Wed Feb 22, 2012 9:45 pm

ed_metal_head

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

JamesKunz wrote:

VOTE A SEPARATION FOR EVERYTHING

I am 3 animated movies short of a full complement. The characters were fairly animated, after all.

Wed Feb 22, 2012 10:07 pm

Jonsh

Gaffer

Joined: Sun Jan 01, 2012 9:42 pmPosts: 36

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Obviously, this is based on what I've seen so far.

BEST PICTURE: The Descendants~Incredibly rich and rewarding.

BEST DIRECTOR: Terrence Malick for The Tree of Life~Love it or hate it, there's no denying Malick directed the hell out of this.

BEST ACTOR: Jean Dujardin for The Artist~Charismatic as hell.

BEST ACTRESS: Kirsten Dunst for Melancholia~So disturbing. I also nominate Charlotte Gainsbourg.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Corey Stoll for Midnight in Paris~Funny and fascinating. I also nominate Matt Damon for Contagion.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Sarina Farhadi for A Separation~Absolutely broke my heart. I also nominate Chloe Grace Moretz for Hugo and Kate Winslet for Contagion.

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY: A Separation~The tragedy is EVERYONE'S fault to some extent.

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY: The Descendants~Cynical and touching at the same time.

BEST ANIMATED FILM: Rango~So bizarre, in a good way.

BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM: A Separation~I need to see it again, but I doubt any other movie will knock it off its perch.

BEST ENSEMBLE: The Descendants~All the different viewpoints make the movie as effective as it is. I also nominate the array of beasts from Melancholia.

BEST ART DIRECTION: The Artist~Completely convincing period details. I also nominate War Horse and Super 8. Both flawed films, but they certainly have awesome environments.

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: The Tree of Life~Gorgeous. I also nominate War Horse and Melancholia.

BEST COSTUME DESIGN: The Artist~Like I said, period detail. I also nominate A Dangerous Method.

BEST MAKE-UP: Super 8~Duh. I also thought what they did in The Iron Lady was effective.

BEST USE OF MUSIC: Moneyball~The song over the end of the movie and the beginning of the closing credits.

BEST VISUAL EFFECTS: Melancholia~The opening montage is jaw-dropping. Can I nominate animated movies for this? If so, I nominate Rango, which is magnificently ugly, and The Adventures of Tintin for the opening credits sequence, which is the most effective use of 3D I've ever seen.

Thu Feb 23, 2012 12:56 am

Pedro

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

Rango is not valid for the visual effects category. Neither is The Adventures of Tintin. In the future, there should be a discussion on whether or not we should consider films that heavily use motion capture technology to be eligible for the visual effects category (of course, by heavily, I mean that it's used in every goddamn scene), but for now, let's keep it traditional with the deadline being tomorrow. Will I receive a PM from you, Jonsh, at some point soon?

Thu Feb 23, 2012 1:13 am

PeachyPete

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

JamesKunz wrote:

VOTE A SEPARATION FOR EVERYTHING

I hope everyone did this. It was definitely at the top of my Best Picture nominees.

Thu Feb 23, 2012 9:25 am

ed_metal_head

Re: For Your Consideration 2011: All Categories

PeachyPete wrote:

JamesKunz wrote:

VOTE A SEPARATION FOR EVERYTHING

I hope everyone did this. It was definitely at the top of my Best Picture nominees.

Was near the top of mine too. Curiously, I left it off my directing list. Picking some categories was hard, man.

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: Google [Bot] and 0 guests

You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot post attachments in this forum